Apple Might Go Full ‘Phablet’

Last year with the iPhone 5C, Apple gave customers more colors, but customers more or less didn’t care.

But soon, Apple may offer something the public has actually been asking for: bigger iPhones.

Apple is planning on larger displays for a pair of iPhones to be released this year, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal in a report. The two models would reportedly each measure 4.5 and 5 inches diagonally, larger than Apple’s current 4-inch offerings.

In other words: Apple might finally be releasing a “phablet,” or a phone more of less the size of the small tablet.

The screen size increase would be the first since Apple went from 3.5 inches to 4 inches for the iPhone in 2012. Apple is moving toward larger screens to counter rival Samsung, which has models like the 5-inch Galaxy S4 and the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3 that are becoming increasingly popular in emerging markets. In December Apple reached a huge deal with China Mobile, the country’s largest carrier, to sell iPhones.

Bloomberg News reported as early as November that Apple was developing new phones with curved screens that measured 4.7 inches and 5.7 inches. While WSJ notes that curved screens, a feature recently introduced by (yep) Samsung, are not currently planned for the next generation iPhone, its sources indicated that they could still be included.

But one thing is for sure: Steve Jobs wouldn’t be happy seeing his baby getting bigger. After announcing the 3.5-inch iPhone 4 in 2010, Jobs blasted rival hardware makers for producing phones so big that “you can’t get your hand around it.”